Indie Hackers Ideas Search API and MCP — startup ideas with categories and MRR
Send an optional category, such as SaaS, and a max_items limit. You get back the matching entries from the Indie Hackers Ideas database: the company name, a one-line description of the idea, its categories and its monthly recurring revenue.
- You send
- an optional category such as SaaS, and max_items
- You get back
- Ideas from the Indie Hackers Ideas database: company name, one-line idea, categories and monthly recurring revenue.
- Coverage
- Indie Hackers records with a public page.
- Price
- 1 point per returned record — $1 per 1,000
- Billed per record actually returned, capped by max_items. A request that returns nothing costs nothing.
Ways to get this data
Three approaches teams use today, and where each one runs into trouble.
| Approach | What it takes | Cost | Trade-off |
|---|---|---|---|
| Indie Hackers directly | Type the query into Indie Hackers and read the results | Free, and slow | Fine for one record, useless across a list, and the layout differs on every platform |
| Building a scraper | Write it, host it, and repair it when Indie Hackers changes its pages | Engineering time | A maintenance commitment for something that isn't your product |
| NeuralVerge | One request, the same shape as every other source in the catalog | $1 per 1,000, misses not billed | Returns what Indie Hackers publishes at request time. Other platforms are separate sources with the same request format |
What you get back
Every field in the example response below.
| Field | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|
total_items | number | How many records are in this response. |
first_item.id | string | Idea id on Indie Hackers. |
first_item.name | string | Company or product the idea belongs to. |
first_item.url | string | Link to the idea page. |
first_item.alias | string | URL slug of the idea. |
first_item.idea | string | One-line description of the idea. |
first_item.image | string | Logo or image link. |
first_item.categories | array | Category names the idea is filed under. |
first_item.mrr | number | Monthly recurring revenue as a number, in dollars. |
first_item.mrr_text | string | The same revenue as shown on the page, such as "$30K MRR". |
items | array | Every returned record, in the same shape as first_item. |
total_found | number or null | Total matches the platform reports. Null when it does not report one. |
page_count | number | How many result pages were read to build the response. |
blocked | boolean | True if the platform refused the request; false when data came back. |
proxy_traffic_bytes | number | Data transferred for the request, in bytes. Informational. |
Example response
A real response, as returned.
{
"session_id": "11111111-1111-1111-1111-111111111111",
"kind": "indiehackers_ideas_search",
"max_items": 2,
"start_page": 1,
"partial": false,
"human": "# Indie Hackers — ideas search\n\n- **Query:** all\n- **Results:** 2 of 118 found\n- **Proxy traffic:** 106.9 KB",
"machine": {
"total_items": 2,
"first_item": {
"id": "l9kjV8ulBLPO2HJKZstb",
"name": "Transistor",
"url": "https://www.indiehackers.com/ideas/a-podcast-hosting-platform-that-helps-creators-and-businesses-publish-and-grow-shows-l9kjV8ulBLPO2HJKZstb",
"alias": "a-podcast-hosting-platform-that-helps-creators-and-businesses-publish-and-grow-shows-l9kjV8ulBLPO2HJKZstb",
"idea": "A podcast hosting platform that helps creators and businesses publish and grow shows.",
"image": "https://transistor.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com/logos/transistor-white.svg",
"categories": [
"Podcasting",
"SaaS",
"Creator Tools"
],
"mrr": 30000,
"mrr_text": "$30K MRR"
},
"items": [
{
"id": "l9kjV8ulBLPO2HJKZstb",
"name": "Transistor",
"url": "https://www.indiehackers.com/ideas/a-podcast-hosting-platform-that-helps-creators-and-businesses-publish-and-grow-shows-l9kjV8ulBLPO2HJKZstb",
"alias": "a-podcast-hosting-platform-that-helps-creators-and-businesses-publish-and-grow-shows-l9kjV8ulBLPO2HJKZstb",
"idea": "A podcast hosting platform that helps creators and businesses publish and grow shows.",
"image": "https://transistor.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com/logos/transistor-white.svg",
"categories": [
"Podcasting",
"SaaS",
"Creator Tools"
],
"mrr": 30000,
"mrr_text": "$30K MRR"
},
{
"id": "oFV7vFM96OlJ2TRnh98b",
"name": "Simple Analytics",
"url": "https://www.indiehackers.com/ideas/a-privacy-first-analytics-tool-for-websites-that-want-simple-cookie-free-metrics-oFV7vFM96OlJ2TRnh98b",
"alias": "a-privacy-first-analytics-tool-for-websites-that-want-simple-cookie-free-metrics-oFV7vFM96OlJ2TRnh98b",
"idea": "A privacy-first analytics tool for websites that want simple, cookie-free metrics.",
"image": "https://assets.simpleanalytics.com/press/logo-ratio-1-1/round.png",
"categories": [
"Web Analytics",
"Privacy Software",
"SaaS"
],
"mrr": 35000,
"mrr_text": "$35K MRR"
}
],
"total_found": 118,
"page_count": 1,
"blocked": false,
"proxy_traffic_bytes": 109448
},
"total_points": 2
}How to run it
The same lookup works from the app, the API, or as a tool an agent can call mid-task.
Results come back in the same envelope as every other source: a session id, a readable summary, the structured result and the points charged. max_items caps how many records are returned and billed.
curl -X POST https://api.neuralverge.ai/functions/v1/run-indiehackers-ideas-search \
-H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY" \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-d '{"max_items":2}'What teams use it for
Where this field shows up in an actual workflow.
Filter the ideas list by category and read the one-line idea next to the revenue figure to see which niches have paying products.
Collect every idea filed under a category such as SaaS to see who is already operating there.
Take company names with revenue from the list and use them as a starting set for outreach or research.
Compare mrr across ideas in the same category to get a feel for what small products earn.
Coverage, freshness and limits
What this source covers, how fresh it is, and where it stops.
Indie Hackers records with a public page.
Read at request time, so the answer reflects the platform as it stands when you ask.
This source returns information Indie Hackers shows publicly. Every response carries the session id you can trace.
- —The category filter takes a category name such as SaaS. The sample does not show a list of valid categories, so a misspelled value may simply return nothing.
- —Revenue is the figure shown on the Ideas page, not audited financials.
- —total_found reflects the filtered list. Pages hold 50 ideas, so set start_page to continue past the first page.
Questions, answered
Yes. Pass category, for example SaaS, and only ideas in that category come back.
Related sources
Try indie hackers idea search on your own data
One request format across every source in the catalog.